Literature

Helen Phillips’s new novel, Hum, takes place in a world populated by intelligent robots called “hums.” In this work of speculative fiction, Philips explores a near future stemming out of our world’s obsession with technology and artificial intelligence. At the same time, though, this is a story about family, as May, a wife and mother,

If you lose your hearing, how does the world around you change? What contours of one-on-one conversations become harder to make out, what details of a bustling room come into sharper focus? What creature comforts do you stubbornly cling to all the while? Adèle Rosenfeld’s Jellyfish Have No Ears is about a woman going deaf

Growing up in the Appalachian sliver of Virginia, I was surrounded by magic.  My great grandmother, with her fourth grade education, had an astonishing memory. My little brother could see spirits. My mother had the lithe 90’s beauty and preternatural capability of the modern witches my brother and I worshiped in movies like Practical Magic.

I am thirteen years old, fresh out of seventh grade, and it’s my greatest dream to watch, no make, two boys kiss, though I haven’t put it into those exact words just yet. In the backseat of my aunt’s SUV, on a drive to a lake in Vermont, I listen to “Closing Time” by the

The classroom has long been the site of many compelling works of literature. It is here that the nuances of power and influence are distilled; here that the kinetic energy of two minds meeting is laid bare. Needless to say, the student-teacher dynamic is one that can easily tip into the transgressive, with the impressionable

Frankenstein of Migration by Christina Cooke Something changed in my relationship to New York City during the pandemic. I don’t know how to describe it. I’m still figuring out what I mean. In the three years I lived here before March 20, 2020—the day after my thirty-first birthday, when the city of go! go! go!

It’s not easy, getting people to laugh in the presence of murder. It’s also hard to cut a list down from fifty brilliant novels, and I’ll admit my picks are completely subjective—some for their humanity, some for consistency, some for their sheer originality. Everyone owes a debt to Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake, who in

My Mugger Chose the Most Interesting Knife! So Much to Know Aging is great because you learn so many things on the way. I don’t mean just that you gain perspective; I mean if you slow down a bit you see so many details. I’m at that point in life where I’m worried that I

Inspired by nightmares and the work of surrealist filmmaker David Lynch, Lena Valencia’s debut short story collection Mystery Lights seeks to explore women’s darker natures. We meet a feminist filmmaker, who obtains strength at a pivotal moment from her fictional murderesses. In an attack on the domestic goddess trope, a young girl, recently returned from

Have you ever dated a comedian? At first you’re laughing and having a good time. Without realizing it, you allow yourself to let down your guard—funny people, after all, are often perceived as light and frivolous. But then the quips get a little darker, their witty observations maybe too astute, too sharp, cutting. Before you know it,

Novels with multiple points of view aren’t telling one story, but many. They appreciate an important life principle: anybody can be a hero given the right opportunity. Even when focused on  the same event, each recollection is different, tinted by each person’s experience and knowledge. These perspectives might corroborate or contradict, add another dimension, form

“A to Z” was written to be enjoyed as an audio story, and we encourage you to listen, if possible. For accessibility, the full transcript is also available below. You can read it by clicking the arrow. Alanna: So, as I was listening to your message, I dropped a charm with no chain into—you know

In Off the Books, Soma Mei Sheng Frazier draws readers into a classic road trip novel and then surprises us with a geopolitical twist. Protagonist Měi, an Ivy League dropout, drives a taxi off the books and is transporting her new client Henry across the country. Henry is handsome, witty, and oddly solicitous about an

Time travel is hard to wrap your head around, especially when distracted by a total hottie from nearly 200 years ago. Movies like Groundhog Day, or even Palm Springs, try to smooth over the ethical questions of sleeping with a time traveler with movie magic; books like Time Traveler’s Wife do their best to ignore

When most folks hear the word “archive,” they picture a dusty library folder…but when scholars use the word, sometimes they mean it in a different sense. For them, “the Black Archive” certainly refers to the papers and documents that track lives and deeds. But scholars, or at least new generations of scholars and writers, also

Brazil has never lacked great literature. But for a long time, it seemed that only the classic Brazilian writers were being published and read in English. You may have heard their names: Machado de Assis, Jorge Amado, Clarice Lispector, Mário de Andrade, Hilda Hist. These are all phenomenal writers, but the vast majority of Brazilian

Passing by Lane Michael Stanley Los Angeles, California. Him: Jess, elder millennial from Los Angeles.Me: millennial, born in San Diego, raised in Maryland, three years on Testosterone.  Jess takes me on our first date on Valentine’s Day, to a vegan Thai restaurant. We’ve been in love for a year and we can finally be together.